Aliens VS Predator Review
Let’s get one thing straight. I am not looking for movie based games that are good. I am just looking for movie based games that don’t totally suck. Aliens Vs Predator is a franchise that has spawned many games that weren’t really good, but that solidly didn’t suck. In fact it’s been so long since we saw an Aliens Vs Predator movie, you can almost say that the franchise has taken on a life of its own in the video gaming world. Unfortunately, once a franchise stands on its own two feet, I am once again looking for the game to be good, not simply to “not suck.”
The latest installment of the Aliens VS Predator franchise does not suck. In fact, it is quite enjoyable. It’s not a big blockbuster like Goldeneye was back in the day, but it is a fun distraction nonetheless. It has the basic down-fallings of any other movie based game, that being the paper-thin plot, the horrible voice acting, and the general lack of polish, but beyond that, it has a very interesting three class system that is a lot of fun to fool around with.
The key aspect of Aliens Vs Predator’s gameplay is the ability to control either one of the Xenomorphs, one of the Predators, or one of the humans. The single player campaign will send you through a thrilling although cookie cutter story as one of each. They all control very differently. The humans control like a basic first person shooter. You get different guns and pump your enemies full of bullets, and that’s about the end of it all. They get basic radar which helps to orient themselves toward possible threats, but otherwise the gameplay is about as standard as you get, not that that’s a bad thing. With a game like this that has such varying control styles, sometimes the gamer needs a return to simplicity just to center himself.
The Predators play as a combination of action and stealth games, feeling almost like a gory version of Deus Ex. They get all their favorite sci-fi weapons, like the awesome spinny wrist blades of doom, but their non-combat tools are the most fun to take advantage of. They have the iconic Predator stealth camo, and even the infrared vision, and that makes sneaking up on people and ripping their heads off very fun indeed.
The Aliens are the quickest of the bunch, and have the least range capability. They move at blistering speeds and have the ability to scale walls. Playing as the aliens produces a unique hit-and-run style of gameplay that you don’t see in first person shooters all that much. It is fun, but very disorienting. I had the advantage of a keyboard and mouse when I was controlling the Xenomorphs, and I still got massively disoriented. I can’t fathom what it would be like if you were using a controller on a console.
The single-player is cool, but the multiplayer is where the game really shines. With three totally separate races to control, players will find themselves employing totally different strategies in each of the game’s varying match types. Not only that, but the game’s interesting three race style allows for it to employ several interesting unique match-types. It’s a bit too easy to get stealth kills though, and you will very often see players go on killing sprees that are a bit too easy to earn.
All of this is well and good, but the game’s biggest flaw, I hate to say, is that it isn’t mainstream. The single player mode isn’t enough to really sell anyone on the game, and the multiplayer modes, while fun, will never truly foster a community that rivals say Halo or Modern Warfare 2. Aliens Vs Predator is a game that … well … doesn’t suck, but 7 out of 10 doesn’t really get you noticed on the gaming radar. Personally, I had a fun time with this game, but can I recommend it to you in good conscience? Perhaps. I think it is impossible to purchase this game without feeling buyer’s remorse once you realize you won’t pick it up again after you beat the campaign and play a few multiplayer matches, but until then it’s a fun experience.
(25 votes, average: 2.80 out of 4)
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